Mike Zielinski, also known as Zeke, offers his entertaining and insightful take on politics, sports and topical events. Zeke has been a prolific and creative sports columnist, news columnist, blogger and wordsmith with a lifelong love affair with prose.

Monthly Archives: April 2017

Granted, the Eagles didn’t make a sexy first-round pick Thursday night when they plucked Tennessee DE Derek Barnett.

So what?

Guys with a pastry tray of potential and exotic physical assets can go boom but often go bust.

Barnett is none of that. He is a football player, pure and simple. Which is exactly the point. He is a safe pick.

OK, perhaps his speed is a tick slow and his arms are a tad short for a defensive end. But he plays smart, has one helluva quick burst off the line and was a tower of productivity in the tough SEC.

The dude can rush the passer. Pairing Barnett’s skill off the edge with Jim Schwartz’s wide scheme is a beautiful marriage worthy of some wedding cake.

Barnett can line up wide and worry about little else beyond penetrating into the backfield — the perfect role for his skill set. Brandon Graham, Chris Long and Barnett make for a talented DE trio that should fire fastballs at QBs and take some heat off the cornerbacks.

That being said, the Birds had better pick a talented cornerback tonight. Make that two!

The man who blew it all is dead, apparently by his own hand. But people close to him say he would never kill himself and speculate that he may have been murdered.

The timing was as weird as his life. He was found dead in his cell Wednesday, the same day some of his former New England Patriots teammates visited the White House to celebrate their most recent Super Bowl victory.

Some question why Hernandez would take his own life — Massachusetts prison officials say he hung himself in his cell — just when things seemed to be looking better for his future.

It was only a week ago that he was acquitted of two additional murders in a separate case.

Although Hernandez was already serving a life sentence without parole for murder, his attorneys were hopeful that Hernandez had a chance to be released from prison soon because the 2013 conviction was being automatically reviewed by the state’s highest court.

The chronology of his wasted life is bizarre.

Star tight end at the University of Florida at 17.

Drafted by New England Patriots at 20.

Signs $40 million deal with New England Patriots at 23.

Convicted Killer at 25.

Dead in apparent suicide at 27.

The fleet tight end simply couldn’t outrun his demons, the drugs, the gangs, the violence, even himself.

It’s not for me to speculate on whether Aaron Hernandez is resting in peace. But I do know that he sure as hell did not live in peace.